Afghanistan earthquakes - if you believe in a kind god why do you think this happens?

[Westfacing]

How much more can the people of that country take - what did they do to deserve such a terrible deal in life?

Wars, Taliban, corruption, politics, whatever are man-made, literally, but how can a god, who people from all religions worship, visit such a catastrophe on innocent people.

How do believers believe?

You might want to ask MNHQ to move your post to the Philosophy/Religion topic, as that's where the religious types hang out, and you are more likely to get the answer you are looking for.

Probably still more comforting to believe there’s a loving god who will meet you in heaven instead of all this suffering being pointless then you die.

God doesn't cause earthquakes. Its location at the intersection of two major tectonic plates - the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate - does. Earthquakes are very common in the region as a result. There have been seven quite large eartquakes (6+ scale) in just the last ten years; two of those were "double quakes".

Nobody I know who believes in God, believes in an omnipotent figure who sits up in heaven deciding who suffers and handing out bad and good fortune to individuals in the way you are implying. It's a very childish and simplistic way to understand religion.

I don't believe that God visits catastrophes on people.

I believe God is the force of love which is in all the people who help in any of those situations.

He doesn't exist

@EmmaMaria
But if you believe, then you believe God made the universe, therefore also the tectonic plates. So by extrapolation, the earthquakes.

Is this the same god who made the earth in 6 days?

If you believe a god did this how could it not be responsible for subsequent faults.

Ah well that's where all the sins and the punishment and the fire and brimstone come in, isn't it?

Why do you believe God is benevolent? If there is a God deciding what occurs here on earth, He/She/It is not benevolent.

I believe God made a world with complex forces which all interact, all are necessary for this world to function. Very sadly humans were living on the fault line. I also believe God has given us the resources and responsibility to help those in need. I think it’s generally humans who mess things up with their greed (abusing the environment, not sharing the world’s resources equally and wanting more power/land for themselves).
I don’t believe God sits up on a cloud zapping people with storms and quakes. He has given us free will to do as we choose whilst we are on earth. We can make the world a better or a worse place with our actions.

Humans decide what happens on earth. We have free will, we aren’t little robots controlled by God.

I agree. There was an "if" at the start of my proposition.

It's a very childish and simplistic way to understand religion.

Well I don't understand religion, that's my point, so perhaps you can enlighten me in my childish and simplistic ways as to how an almighty who creates the earth and universe is not responsible for how the tectonic plates move.

We are always told that famines, wars, floods are man-made and due to god giving humans free will - but humans have no control over tectonic plates.

Simplistic thinking I know.

The Bible isn’t meant to be a scientific text book. It’s a document describing people’s experiences with God.
The Bible actually describes evolution pretty well considering how long ago it was written - first God made stars and planets, then the seas, plants, animals then man.
Amongst Christians, the story of creation is thought of more like a poem than a scientific paper.

@BarnOwlFlying But in reality most of the disasters which @Westfacing is referring to are out of anyone’s control.
The humans which settled on the tectonic plates originally certainly didn’t have the geological knowledge not to. Likewise, as humans, suggest how we move whole countries out of the way!

Christians believe that when the earth was created it was perfect and without anger, fear, pain, disasters etc. After The Fall of Man (Adam committing sin by trying to emulate God) Adam was cast out of The Garden of Eden and God told him that he'd chosen the way of sin and worldliness so was destined from then to suffer the consequences of his choice. Due to God giving Adam free will, this choice was Adam's alone. Suffering as a result of this event involves disease, animals preying upon one another, fear, anger, pain, jealousy etc., natural disasters and ultimately, death.

Whether people take this literally is a personal choice. Many see it as a metaphor for Man being predisposed to choosing sin over virtue and suffering the consequences as a result of this. Adam therefore represents all humankind. Humans sin, whereas other lifeforms don't as they weren't created to have our consciousness and awareness of God.

If you're a Christian, the route is back to God via Jesus Christ. This life on earth is seen as a temporary stop and not the ultimate destination, which is Heaven and reconciliation with God. Christians understand that suffering is part of life and an unfortunate consequence of our choices. They don't fear suffering or death, only being separated from God causes a legitimate fear.

Christ Himself suffered torture and execution so He's with everyone through their suffering, whether Christian or not as God loves everyone and wants everyone to know Him.

God isn't some sinister controller of humans by playing a galactic SIMS game. Zapping some people, but being kind to others.

Obviously, many people don't believe in this, I'm just presenting the Christian view. Some types of Christian (Protestant) will interpret differently no doubt.

“God works in mysterious ways” would likely be something devoted religious people would say to justify awful things happen. I’m talking about all religions. My mam used to say that when I would question why awful things happen when apparently god is great.

You just have to look at the night sky,
watch a few documentaries on the universe and David Attenborough on evolution to know God was a man made concept to control the masses. Totally understandable a few hundred years ago, because they didn’t think the scientific knowledge we have now, but it blows my mind in this day and age, how anyone can believe in a god.

Even the sheer number of different opposing religions is justification to wonder, even if we say god does exist, which one? Which religion is correct? Surely there can’t be hundred different gods… so it stands to reason to ask which is the true one? Funny how you would never hear someone say a god from a different faith is the true one….. funny how the vast majority of people below and follow the religion on their parents.

Just to add. Our stay on earth is not supposed to be fun or endlessly comfortable. We're not on holiday. We can grow through suffering and grow closer to God. People who blame God for bad things happening are akin to small children looking to their parent to make things all better now. This is a grossly simplistic and immature way of viewing life. Maturity comes with understanding that life isn't fair, can be shit for many people and that unfortunate and painful deaths occur. Often, God is to be found in the very depths of despair and tragedy. I have experienced this myself so I'm not being glib.

There is no kind God. There is no God at all, this is patently obvious.

The most violent cruel people there are, think they are motivated by God.

Clearly religion is a form of mental illness. Some people have it mildly, others in a much more damaging degree.

Just to add. Our stay on earth is not supposed to be fun or endlessly comfortable. We're not on holiday. We can grow through suffering and grow closer to God

Well that's all very nice but just how do the people who suffer greatly from huge geological catastrophes 'grow'?

There's an answer for anything and everything you can come up with, including the already mentioned Mysterious Ways Catchall that is brought out from the bottom of the barrel when there's really no answer.

Presumably the belivers that didn't get squashed flat in the earthquake grow closer to god because they were spared. And on it goes.

By experiencing what Christ experienced, by trusting others to help, by helping others, by understanding what is needed in order to really live, by meeting yourself when you're at your lowest, by grief and hardship. It's difficult to explain if you don't understand that pain can lead to growth and change.

My understanding of the Christian faith is that God lets us "get on with it" during our temporal existence. This obviously involves suffering, death, disease, crop failure and everything bad (and often good) related to the human condition. Had we stayed in the Garden of Eden, we would have known no pain or harm and lived in eternal paradise. But we chose not to. If we want to be free of all this baggage, we've got to repent. So that's my very rough guide to the rules of the Bible. If you don't believe in them, then there's no point in arguing about it. It's like arguing about the rules of a tennis club when you've got absolutely no intention of joining it and you don't even play tennis. Just for clarity I'm an agnostic so apologies if I'm talking hogwash.

I don’t believe in God like most people do, but if I did, what does it have to do with Him? He’s the OG, the creator, isn’t he? I don’t think He brings about disaster or illness as such. It just is what it is and then for people who do believe in him, praying and thinking about heaven brings them the comfort and hope to deal with it all I think.